From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "D. D. Brierton" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Help needed with regexps Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 19:57:20 +0000 Organization: DZR Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1076702760 23609 80.91.224.253 (13 Feb 2004 20:06:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:06:00 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Feb 13 21:05:53 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1ArjZR-0005IF-00 for ; Fri, 13 Feb 2004 21:05:53 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1ArjVv-0003G5-Up for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:02:15 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!npeer.de.kpn-eurorings.net!landlord!wards.force9.net.POSTED!not-for-mail User-Agent: Pan/0.14.2 (This is not a psychotic episode. It's a cleansing moment of clarity.) Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 20 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.159.101.92 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@plus.net.uk Original-X-Trace: wards.force9.net 1076702401 212.159.101.92 (Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:00:01 GMT) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:00:01 GMT Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:120882 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:16831 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:16831 On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 19:37:32 +0000, Stefan Monnier wrote: >> :front "" > > Regexps like A*.*B* are asking for trouble because there is an exponential > numberof ways to match them and the regexp-engine uses backtracking. > So it will get stuck trying them all, potentially for hours or even years. > To you it just looks like "it's stuck". Ah of course. I'm such a nincompoop sometimes. Removing the many .*s with more specific expressions has solved the emacs tailspin problem. Thanks! Best, Darren -- ====================================================================== D. D. Brierton darren@dzr-web.com www.dzr-web.com Trying is the first step towards failure (Homer Simpson) ======================================================================